A reality star has declared her love for her body in the form of a black-and-white selfie, and social media users are loving it.
On Jan. 10, Mar Ortiz from Lifetime's "Big Women: Big Love" posted a full-body mirror selfie on Facebook after someone told her she seemed to be losing weight. In her post, Ortiz asked, "Why does size matter?"
"Big or small.... I love my LOVE handles!" she wrote. "I don't care about having abs or eating a salad every day. I do believe in taking healthier days and balance. I #celebratemysize every day!"
Ortiz's post, which includes the hashtags #effyourbeautystandards and #plusisequal, has been liked more than 95,000 times on Facebook and has racked up another 1,700 likes on Instagram so far. Ortiz, who is also a singer, told The Huffington Post that the response has been "overwhelming."
Though she has received positive feedback, she has also faced negative comments from people claiming she's promoting an unhealthy lifestyle when she joked in her post about eating things like burgers and pizza every day. Ortiz clarified that those comments were "all in good humor" and said she is paying more attention to the positive responses.
"I find the nasty remarks and comments saying I'm unhealthy absolutely ridiculous," she told HuffPost. "You cannot judge a book by its cover."
Ortiz added that she hopes she can highlight the importance of body positivity for others "struggling with self-love" and help transform society's attitudes toward plus-size women.
"My only hope is to help break barriers and that people will be less judgmental of plus-size women," she said.
H/T Cosmopolitan
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